South African cricketer AB de Villiers has written in his autobiography that his team's semi-final defeat to New Zealand in the 2015 World Cup will be the greatest disappointment of his cricket career, reported ESPNcricinfo. The 32-year-old also shed some light on the quota system in South Africa in the book titled AB: The Autobiography. According to the South African quota system, players of colour are required to be sufficiently represented in the national team.
In the World Cup semi-final, Vernon Philander replaced Kyle Abbott in the team, reportedly to fulfil an unofficial quota of fielding four players of colour. The Proteas made it to the semi-final after winning their first ever World Cup knockout match when they beat Sri Lanka in the quarter-final. Their squad in that match did not have Philander, who was out due to injury. Abbott played in that match and put in an impressive performance. De Villiers wrote that it was "generally assumed" the same team would take the field against New Zealand.
Throughout the World Cup in 2015, South Africa had played between three and five players of colour and had not received instruction on any specific number from selectors or the South African cricket board. However, according to de Villiers, he received a call a day before the semi-final informing him that Philander had passed a fitness test and would play instead of Abbott. The South African captain does not reveal who called him but does admit that it set him wondering as to whether there were "purely cricketing reasons" behind the move.
"It depressed me to think of my team-mates in these outdated racial terms," De Villiers writes in the book. "Would anyone really mind if there were three or four players of colour in our side?"